Immigration: How Traveling to the Schengen Area Will Change in the Next Few Years

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As people are traveling every year and more to the EU/Schengen countries, the latter are trying every day more to make traveling safer and easier, for both travelers and their authorities. In the recent years, the European Union has developed, amended and implemented new regulations, schemes and technological tools to reach its goal of increasing the number of visitors while making Europe a safer country.

In the next years, traveling to Europe will be subject to huge changes, like never before. Travelers are advised to be informed and prepared beforehand. Here are some of the recently announced changes, set to happen in the near future.

Application Centers of Each Member State in Every Third Country

No traveler will ever again need to go to another country to apply for a Schengen visa, as it has happened so far in many parts of the world. The amended Schengen border code, adopted by the Council of the European Union last June, intends to provide faster and clearer procedures for frequent travelers to the Schengen territory.

Among others, the updated code foresees to make it easier for travelers to submit an application, by no longer making them to travel to another country to apply, in absence of a representative authority of their Schengen destination country in their country of residence.

According to the new Schengen Visa Code, starting from the first months of 2020, every Schengen Member should either:

• Be represented by another competent Member State for examining and deciding on applications on behalf of that Member State, or
• Cooperate with an external service provider, in that third country, outsourcing the collecting of Schengen visa applications.

Higher Schengen Visa Fees

Travelers in need of a Schengen Visa will need to pay higher visa fees starting from January 2020, due to the Schengen visa code changes.

The Schengen visa fees will increase for 33.3% from 60 euros to 80 euros once the amended regulation comes into force, in a bid of the EU to increase the tools available to respond to the challenges posed by illegal migration.

Switzerland has moved on to become the first Schengen member to align its corresponding regulations with the updated visa code, announcing that its embassies and representative authorities would change Schengen visa applicants with a fee of 80 euros instead of 60 euros, as of February 2, 2020. The other Schengen Members are expected to increase their fees about that time as well.

Visa Applications Can Soon Be Lodged Up to Six Months in Advance

While so far, Schengen visa applicants were not permitted to file an application earlier than three months before their intended travel date to the Schengen Area, the new code permits them to pay six months in advance.

Yet, travelers will still not be allowed to file an application later than three months before their intended entry to the Schengen, except for justified individual cases of urgency, in which the consulate or the central authorities may allow the lodging of applications later than 15 calendar days.

No More Passport Stamps

Passports of non-EU travelers entering the Schengen borders will no longer be stamped after 2022.

The new scheme of the European Union called Entry/Exit System (EES) is a system that will register entry and exit data and refusal of entry data of third-country nationals crossing the external borders of the Member States and determining the conditions for access to the EES for law enforcement purposes.

The system will thus make passport stamps unnecessary and replace, them once it starts registering and storing all entry/exit data.

ETIAS for Visa-Free Traveling

World travelers privileged with visa-free entry to the Schengen member states will also be affected in the near future from recent changes that the EU has decided to implement.  The most important change is that as of January 2021, travelers will need to apply for an online authorization, and wait for its approval before heading to the EU.

The European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) will be the first scheme in Europe that obliges the traveler to apply for authorization before undertaking a trip. It is a system, which resembles the US Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).

The application procedure may take about 15 minutes. Each ETIAS application will undergo a detailed security check to determine whether the applicant can be allowed to enter any Schengen Zone country.

Travelers will receive an ETIAS confirmation in their email, which they need to print and show at the Schengen port of entry.

Advanced Border Control Technology

Aside of the Entry/Exit System, which will replace passport stamps, other forms of advanced technology are being tested at the EU ports of entry, in a bid to make it easier to cross the brooders.

Currently, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) is testing a new border check technology at the Lisbon Airport Authority (ANA), in cooperation with the Border Service of Portugal (SEF), known as the “Biometrics on the Move“.

Instead of standing in queues to show the passport to a border guard, travelers are able to cross the border almost seamlessly thanks to face recognition and touchless scanning of fingerprints. The technology has been developed in a bid to make border crossing not only easier for travelers but also more secure at the same time.

Whereas, a new artificial intelligence program with the face of an avatar, known as the iBorderCtrl program, could soon start functioning alongside border guards. Its main task will be detecting people lying on their identity, the purpose of entry and their destination.

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UK Nationals Traveling to Schengen Area

While for many traveling to the EU will get to be easier in the near future, for United Kingdom nationals that is not the case. Having had the privilege of freely moving across Europe without any visa, or even without passports, once the process of leaving the EU is over, Britons will be treated as non-EU countries are.

Though they will not be subject to visa requirements, they still need to apply for and get an ETIAS starting from January 2021.

In addition, Britons will have to be quite more careful with their passports. The Schengen states want travelers, even those entering visa-free, to have a passport valid for another three months beyond their intended stay. The passport must not be older than ten years, as well.

They will also have to wait in lines alongside the nationals of 62 other visa-free countries, as they will no longer be permitted to pass through the gates reserved for EU nationals.

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